What are cluster bombs and how much damage can they cause?
![What are cluster bombs and how much damage can they cause](/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=%2Fuploads%2Fnews%2F32%2F3281%2F3%2F3281344-what-are-cluster-bombs-and-how-much-damage-can-they-cause.jpg&w=750&hash=7ddae875d48c9a4d4343f2a118e1540a)
Sticking out of pavements, lodged in apartments and half buried in playgrounds, unexploded missiles appear to be littering Ukraine.
But many of the grey shells, tail fins and all, shown in video clips and social media posts around the country are likely to be signs that Russia is using devastating and indiscriminate cluster bombs.
A growing body of evidence suggests Russia is using missiles that carry sub-munitions then spread and explode over a larger area, increasing the potential for damage and civilian casualties.
After the sub-munitions have been dispensed, the rocket motor and warhead carrying the cargo continue on their trajectory, frequently embedding themselves into the ground.
Amnesty International claims cluster bombs hit a preschool in northwestern Ukraine on Friday, killing three people, including a child.
Amnesty said the attack "appears to have been carried out by Russian forces, which were operating nearby, and which have a record of using cluster munitions in populated areas".
"There is no possible justification for dropping cluster munitions in populated areas, let alone near a school," Secretary General Agnes Callamard said.
Open source investigative journalists, Bellingcat, say Kharkiv- struck by a devastating drill of explosions on Monday - has been targeted by "multiple cluster munitions attacks" since the invasion last week.
"Images and videos posted online demonstrate even wider use of these weapons in civilian areas," Bellingcat said, reproducing dashcam footage of a driver trying to avoid a hail of bomblets in Kharkiv.
"This stretch of highway runs through a residential area and is immediately next to a children's hospital," Bellingcat said.
Human Rights Watch said on Friday that Russian cluster munitions had hit a hospital in Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring 10, six of them healthcare workers.
Some of the videos showing Russia's indiscriminate bombing of homes in Kharkiv today are too graphic to share here.
This one, while not graphic, is haunting in its own right.
Residents walking through a park scramble for safety as cluster munitions explode around them. pic.twitter.com/qOnk5rYNel
— Giancarlo Fiorella (@gianfiorella) February 28, 2022
"This callous attack has killed and injured civilians, and damaged a hospital," said Stephen Goose.
Hospitals and schools are afforded special protection under the Geneva Convention. A breach of the convention could form the basis of a prosecution in the International Criminal Court.
![Clip from a video showing a possible cluster bomb attack on a building in Kharkiv during ceasefire talks](/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fworld-news%2F2022%2F02%2F28%2FTELEMMGLPICT000000287743041_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqhf5ZlJcYdqw-KEgYplpxzFHwtdpQwyNje2OyIL7x97s.jpeg%3Fimwidth%3D480&w=728&hash=e0da5cd8715a6c4039226548f542afac)
Lawyers would have to prove one of many possible charges, including "intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives".
But it is exceptionally hard to prove.
Additionally, over 100 countries have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions banning the production and use of the weapons - but not Russia or Ukraine.
Cluster bombs were designed to kill groups of infantry in open ground, destroy columns of poorly protected vehicles or crater runways.
Fighting in built up areas invariably results in civilian deaths, with one side claiming it was a premeditated act and the other saying such actions were accidental or an unfortunate consequence of victims being near legitimate military targets.
Children at risk of cluster munitions post-fightingCluster bombs can be designed to explode on impact or remain on the ground for a period of time before detonating.
They can deny areas as any advancing forces will not know if munitions left on the ground are about to explode or have malfunctioned.
![Grey shell of what is believed to be a cluster bomb lies in a home in Kharkiv after a Russian military strike on Monday](/thumb/phpThumb.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fworld-news%2F2022%2F02%2F28%2FTELEMMGLPICT000287753886_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgGkfkDQxy4meE2pwF2fWRIgGbXuI0O2wDjuWyUYjkhE.jpeg%3Fimwidth%3D480&w=728&hash=94bf741e4491824c19531c4ca7cb97de)
Many children have been maimed and killed over the years by cluster munitions left behind long after fighting has ceased.
There is mounting evidence Russian forces have fired cluster bombs from BM-27 Uragan and BM-30 Smerch self-propelled multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
Each of these vehicles fire rockets with cargo warheads containing the submunitions.
The containers separate from the rocket motor as the missile is in flight, spilling the sub-munitions, which then fall by gravity.
Britain withdrew cluster bombs from its arsenal in May 2008 and had destroyed all 190,828 rockets and 38.7 sub-munitions by December 2013.